You see? This is what happens when you give your money to forward-thinking companies. Instead of cutting costs and building a massive grey block of an office building, Apple is constructing one of the world’s most advanced office spaces, one that will have a neutral carbon footprint after construction.

It all began in 2009, when Steve Jobs contacted Norman Foster, who has previously designed the bullet-shaped Gherkin in London and the restored Reichstag in Berlin. “I don’t want you to think of me as your client,” Jobs said to Foster, “I want you to think of me as your partner.” And so began a maverick expedition to build Apple Campus 2.

The new campus will sit on a 176-acre plot in Cupertino, and will consist of one massive ring-shaped office building (The Mothership), a secret subterranean auditorium for product launches, private underground parking passageways that lead to 2,000 parking spots and thousands upon thousands of indigenous trees.

Stefan Behling, one of the Foster and Partners architects working on the project, described the building as “one of the most environmentally sustainable projects on this scale anywhere in the world.” The idea is that the facility will run entirely on renewable energy, thanks mostly to on-site fuel cell plants and rooftop solar panels. Natural ventilation and radiant cooling mean that the mothership won’t need air conditioning for some 70 percent of the year.

If you’re lucky enough to work there one day, you’ll enjoy a 90,000-square-foot cafeteria carved into a section of the building, from where you will be able to stroll to the parkland on both the inside and outside of the ring. If you’re still feeling peckish, why not try some of Apple’s own apples from Apple’s apple trees?

Your office looks really, really kak now – doesn’t it?

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[Source : Wired]